1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a wood planing machine, more particularly to a wood planing machine with a material removal indicator assembly that is adapted to indicate in advance the thickness of the portion of a wooden workpiece to be removed when the workpiece is processed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional wood planing machine 10 according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,949 is shown to include a machine base 11, left and right pairs of upstanding posts 12 (only one post 12 is visible in FIG. 1), a cutter carriage 13, a height adjustment mechanism 14, and a material indicator assembly 30.
As illustrated, the machine base 11 has opposite mounting sides 111 spaced apart from each other in a transverse direction, and opposite feed-in and take-out sides spaced apart from each other in a longitudinal direction. The upstanding posts 12 extend upward from the machine base 11 at the mounting sides 111. The cutter carriage 13 is disposed above the machine base 11, and is connected movably to the upstanding posts 12 for sliding movement of the cutter carriage 13 along the upstanding posts 12. The cutter carriage 13 further has a cutter device (not visible) mounted thereon, a front side 130 proximate to the feed-in side, a rear side opposite to the front side 130, and a lowermost surface between the front and rear sides and extending in the longitudinal direction and cooperating with the machine base 11 to define a workpiece passage between the cutter carriage 13 and the machine base 11 for passage of a workpiece 20 to be planed.
The height adjustment mechanism 14 moves the cutter carriage 13 along the upstanding posts 12 so as to define a desired height of the cutter carriage 13 relative to the machine base 11.
Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the material removal indicator assembly 30 includes an indicia 33 with incremental marks fixed on the front sided 130 (see FIG. 1) of the cutter carriage 13, and a pointer 31 having a pivot portion 311 mounted pivotally on the front side 130 and spaced from the indicia 33 in the transverse direction such that the pointer 31 extends in the transverse direction.
The pointer 31 is formed with a workpiece contact block 32 proximate to and below the pivot portion 311. When the cutter carriage 13 is lowered due to operation of the height adjustment mechanism 14, the workpiece contact block 32 will contact the workpiece 20, which action in turn, pivots the pointer 31 about the pivot axis, thereby raising the pointing portion 312 along the indicia 33. Because the contact between the contact block 32 and the workpiece 20 is face-to-face contact, and because the uppermost surface of the workpiece 20 is generally not an even or flat surface, the pointing portion 312 of the pointer 31 is accordingly unable to provide an accurate measure of the thickness of the portion to be removed from the workpiece 20. In addition, constant dragging of the uneven surface of the workpiece 20 against the contact block 32 during the feed-in process may hinder smooth planing of the workpiece 20 and can result in eventual ruin of the material removal indicator assembly after long term use.